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Economic Profile System
The Economic Profile System (EPS) is designed to allow users to produce detailed socioeconomic profiles automatically and efficiently at a variety of geographic scales using Microsoft Excel. Profiles contain tables and figures that illustrate long-term trends in population; employment and personal income by industry; average earnings; business development; retirement and other non-labor income; commuting patterns; agriculture; and earnings by industry. Databases used for EPS profiles are from: Bureau of the Census including County Business Patterns, Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the Regional Economic Information System (REIS) of the Bureau of Economic Analysis, U.S. Department of Commerce.
Click here for more information about what's new in the latest 2007 version.
There are two ways to get profiles:
- You can view finished EPS profiles for each of the counties and states in the Western 11 states as Acrobat (.pdf) files. Finished EPSC Profiles are not available at this time.
- If you need to aggregate counties, need an area that we have not posted, or need EPSC profiles, you can download the two systems below. Download Files and Installation Instructions
Two Economic Profile Systems
We have two systems
you may download to produce custom socio-economic profiles:
- Economic Profile System (EPS)
- Economic Profile System Community (EPSC)
Which system is best? See our comparison chart below.
Which System to Use, EPS or EPSC?
There are two related systems for
producing socioeconomic profiles: the Economic Profile System (EPS) and
the Economic Profile System Community (EPSC). For best results, use both
profile systems. Below is a table highlighting how the two systems complement
each other.
| |
EPS |
EPSC |
| Geographic level of detail |
- Nation
- Region (metro, non-metro, total)
- State (metro, non-metro, total)
- County
|
- Nation, Region, Division, States, Counties, County Subdivisions,
Places (Towns), Indian Reservations, Congressional Districts
|
| Databases used |
- Bureau of the Census (Census)
- County Business Patterns (CBP)
- Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)
- Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), Regional Economic Information
System (REIS)
|
- Bureau of the Census, Decennial Census of Population and Housing,
1990, 2000. (1990 to 2000 comparisons at the county level only)
|
| Time series used |
- Continuous data from 1970 to the most recent data.
|
- 2000. At the county level only 1990 to 2000 comparisons can be made
to show changes in age and household income distribution.
|
| Advantages |
- Long-term trend analysis including trends in employment and personal income by sector, the number of businesses establishments by type and size, and non-labor sources of income such as retirement and age-related income.
- Wages by Industry.
- Counties are compared to states and nation. Key indicators of performance are benchmarked against the US medians.
|
- Age distribution, race, housing costs, housing affordability, education rates, poverty.
- Finer geographic detail.
|
| Disadvantages |
- For some counties employment and personal income data may be suppressed
for some industries and for some years. EPS includes a system for
estimating these data gaps.
|
- Census data is never suppressed, but it is less useful than REIS data used in EPS to see long-term trends by industry; it is only available only for 2000 with limited comparisons to 1990.
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What's New in the 2007 Version?
The latest version of the Economic Profile System is now available. The new version
- has been updated with the latest data.The latest data for each of the sources are
- REIS through 2005
- County Business Patterns through 2005
- BLS Wages for 2005
- BLS Unemployment through April 2007
- makes sure that all of your files are current. The system now has an optional routine that checks your files vs. the web site to make sure you never run a profile using old data. This version check requires web access but it will allow you to skip the routine when internet access is not available.
- has an improved industry specialization page. The specialization page now uses a formula that may yield results that are very different than last year's version. Using last year's formula, the theoretically most diverse economy would have 5% of its jobs spread evenly among the 20 sectors. Even the US as a whole was not terribly diverse by that measure, and you would expect the US to be extremely diverse. Our new calculation uses the sectoral composition of the US economy as the benchmark, so now local economies that are structured most like the US are the most diverse.
We will be making significant improvements to EPS in the coming year. Check this web site for new features. Features under development include
- Web Served Databases - We plan to have all of the data reside in databases that are online so that it will no longer be necessary to download the multiple large files. The system will continue to be an Excel application.
- Shorter Version - A shorter version that packs the most important features in a smaller more manageable document.
- Sector Pages - Enhanced Sector pages that will focus on key sectors in the west such as Timber, Mining, and Travel and Tourism.
If you have any suggestions or comments, please contact Jeff van den Noort.
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Headwaters Economics
Mail: P.O. Box 7059, Bozeman MT 59771
Deliveries: 614 W. Lamme, Bozeman MT 59715
Ray Rasker Ph.D. 406.570.7044 | Ben
Alexander 406.599.7423 | Patty Gude 406.599.7425 | Jeff
van den Noort 406.599.1653
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